At the bottom, smaller than the notes, written in the same ink:
Isolde.
Sabine felt a cold tightening in her chest.
“Where exactly?”
“Inside the pillow slip. Not under it. Inside it.” Brinna wrapped her arms around herself. “And I am not the only one. Tavi found a pressed flower inside her prayer book yesterday. One of the others said her mirror was turned to face the wall when she woke. Lady Celith swears she saw a veiled woman reflected in the corridor glass, but when she turned there was no one there.”
Sabine set the music down carefully.
“Have you told anyone?”
“No.” Brinna shook her head. “I came here first. You’re the only one who does not look at me like I’m already halfway broken.”
Sabine crossed to the door, listened, then opened it.
Lysa stood outside with a lamp and a basin, her expression already sharpened by the sight of Brinna standing in Sabine’s room after midnight.
She entered without waiting to be asked.
“What is it?”
Sabine handed her the parchment.
Lysa read the name, and something in her face changed.
“Where did you find this?”
“In my pillow,” Brinna said.
Lysa set the basin down. “That is deliberate.”
Sabine nodded. “That was my thought.”
Brinna looked between them. “You do not think it’s her?”
“Her ghost?” Lysa said. “No. I think someone with access to your room wants you frightened enough to say the palace is haunted.”
Brinna’s mouth parted. “Why?”
“Because frightened women are useful,” Lysa said. “Because if one of the marked brides breaks publicly and starts talking about Isolde appearing in the mirrors, the temple can call the rite spiritually compromised and intervene however it pleases.” She looked at Sabine. “Or because someone wants the prince tied more tightly to the memory of his dead wife in the middle of an active selection.”
Sabine looked down at the music again.
Someone was planting objects.
Someone was choosing targets carefully.
And someone wanted Isolde alive in the bride wing, not as truth, but as pressure.
“What should I do?” Brinna asked.
“Nothing visible,” Sabine said. “Go back to your chamber. Say nothing to anyone. If more things appear, you tell me or Lysa and no one else.”
Brinna swallowed and nodded.
Lysa checked the corridor before letting her out. When the door shut again, she turned back to Sabine.
